Russell Enloe loved the 1940s and ’50s, collected old cars, sold vintage clothing, skateboarded most of his life and was hardly ever without a wad of grape bubble gum in his mouth.
Enloe, owner of Crown Mercantile at 46 Broadway, died May 24 in a parking lot at South Parker Road and East Havana Street. Enloe was driving and apparently became ill and pulled into the parking lot. He was 43.
The cause of death was reaction to prescription medications, said his fiancée, Margot Crookston.
Enloe had serious leg injuries after a skateboarding accident more than two years ago, said his fiancée, and couldn’t skateboard again.
They were to be married July 4.
Enloe sold vintage clothing, jewelry and gift items at his Mercantile. And he loved what he sold.
He liked to dress in “flashy suits” with pleated trousers and two-tone shoes, Crookston said. The suits had pinched waists, and shoulder pads, said his former partner at American Aces, Ronnie Crawford. Crawford now owns All American Vogue at 10 S. Broadway.
When not in a suit, Enloe might be clad in a Hawaiian shirt or collector baseball cap and bowling shirt. Sometimes they were shirts that said “Bill’s Plumbing” or “Joe’s Bar,” said his mother, Kathy Enloe-Miller of Littleton.
Enloe had “full-sleeve” tattoos, said his fiancée’s mother, Kat Lovato. “They were beautiful – pinup girls and exotic flowers, like birds of paradise. Every inch of both arms was covered,” said Lovato, who owns Cake, a women’s retro fashion store next door to Crown Mercantile.
Enloe specialized in men’s clothes, selling everything from high-top tennis shoes to vintage bluejeans.
He often found items for his store in small Midwestern towns where dry-goods stores had been shuttered and locked with the goods inside untouched.
Enloe could usually talk the owner into selling him items, “but they had to get used to his tattoos first,” his mother said.
Enloe entertained in his ’40s-style kitchen, a yellow and green room with blue and yellow tile. His specialities were barbecue, beef stroganoff and cheese garlic potatoes.
He loved to do set design, and also sold clothes to those having special parties for Mardi Gras, Halloween or the Kentucky Derby, or those bound for proms and weddings. There were clothes for Jackie Onassis wannabes and Audrey Hepburn look-alikes.
“He had a great eye for the beautiful,” said Steve Weil, vice president of Rockmount Ranch Wear. “He loved vintage things but wasn’t obsessed by them. He was always glad to sell them to people who wanted them,” rather than keeping his merchandise. Weil sometimes sold fancy Western shirts to Enloe.
Enloe “had a passion for life and a huge capacity for love and generosity,” Crookston said. “He was able to make people feel at ease and had an irresistible sense of humor.”
His mother remembers her son always “on stage,” always the entertainer, making friends with 80-year-olds as easily as with children. “Sometimes he’d call my women friends ‘hotties,”‘ Enloe-Miller said, laughing.
Russell Enloe loved rockabilly and big-band music and collected a few old vehicles, including a 1956 red-and-white Harley and a 1962 Ford Falcon station wagon, Crawford said.
Russell Enloe was born Jan. 11, 1963, in Denver. He graduated from Arapahoe High School.
At various times Enloe was a caterer, jive dance instructor, a waiter and disc jockey for clubs before going into business.
In addition to his fiancée and his mother, he is survived by his father, Jerry Enloe of Cassville, Mo., his brother, Gary Enloe of Palmer, Alaska, and his sister, Kristen Heidenfelder of Evergreen.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
